Frank Auerbach - Figurative painter - born 1931

Portrait of Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach, born to Jewish parents, sent to Britain in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime he became a British citizen in 1947. He lives and works in Camden, London. He studied at the St Martins School of Art and then the Royal College of Art 1952-55. He doesn't try to paint an accurate photographic equivalent of his subject but develops an obsessive need to scrutinise the subject leading to an intense relationship with his subject, he captures the essence and identity of his subjects on a spiritual level rather than a physical one - he delves into their inner soul. An example of which is the repeated sittings of his portraiture studies over many years, he paints them in one sitting, scrapes off the paint and starts again next sitting, this is based not on achieving a layering effect but simply he just wants to get it 'right'. He is renowned for his excessive use of paint, sometime his paintings are too heavy to actually hang.

Auerbach obsession with painting translates to him taking just one day off a year, he both works and sleeps in his small Camden studio. He affords himself no luxuries even though his painting now fetch millions of pounds. 'I became solvent so late in my life its too late to change' Frank once said. He commented in an interview with the Telegraph in 2013, 'The whole thing is about the struggle and the struggle makes it a fun activity' he is an 'obsessive'. Lucian Freud was a great friend and collector of his work, they used to discuss their works. He was part of the 'School of London' with contemporaries such as Francis Bacon and Leon Kossoff.


He is also known for his landscape paintings, mainly of his surrounding area in Camden Town.

Has he influenced my work?

A suprising artist I hear you say, well what stuck me about Auerbach was his intensity of painting. I can't say I emulate his obsessive nature and Im certainly currently not painting everyday but I really warm to his  painterly style, his hint of expressionism. The colours appeal along with his gestural mark making. What intrigues me is his intensity in trying to capture the spiritual element of his subject, digging much deeper than the figurative, something I am striving for.

Reference:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/21/frank-auerbach-constable-turner-and-me-interview
http://www.artnet.com/artists/frank-auerbach/
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/29/frank-auerbach-painters-painter-freud-tate-retrospective
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/frank-helmuth-auerbach
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/frank-auerbach